Welcome, officially, to the Scarlet Jamie 2.0. If you’ve followed me here from blogger, thanks for making the switch! To kick things off I wanted to bring you one of my favorite recipes I have tried since starting my keto journey at the end of July. I got this idea from a video by Katherine Michelle on youtube and had to switch a few ingredients. I’ve made this a few times now for myself and my husband. I am obsessed. This delicious keto friendly dupe for the McDonald’s McGriddle is everything you love about the breakfast treat but without all the carbs. This version only has 5.5 net carbs versus a whopping 43 grams in the original. Not only is this great tasting and low carb but its super quick. The eggy “bun” portion is made in a mug in the microwave! It doesn’t get any easier than that. If you try this recipe, let me know in the comments below what you think! Also, what are some of your favorite keto friendly fast food dupes?

In a small bowl combine one egg, syrup, and coconut flour, mix until smooth.

Transfer mixture into a greased microwave safe mug and microwave for 60-90 seconds.

Fry sausage patty in a skillet until cooked through, set aside.

Cook the last egg to your preference. I prefer scrambled for this.

Dump the "bun" out on a plate and cut in half horizontally.

Lightly brown each side in the skillet.

Stack sausage, egg, and cheese on bottom half and add the top.

Return to skillet until cheese is melted

Notes

Carb count will very depending on what kind of syrup you use, mine contributed 2.5 carbs for this recipe but there are other brands with 0 carb. If you're concerned about the amount of protein, leave out the second egg in the sandwich.

I debated for some time about whether or not I wanted to discuss this on my blog or on youtube because for me, my weight loss journey is incredibly personal. Weight has contributed to my self esteem issues since I was 13 years old, before I ever had anything to worry about. But, I really like the accountability that sharing this provides and I know I find these types of progress blogs especially helpful when trying to motivate myself to continue.

If you’re new to the idea of the keto diet, its basically eating a low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet. Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or PCOS have seen success with this diet due to insulin resistance improvement. I’m going to continue with this series kind of assuming my readers already are familiar with keto and PCOS so if you’re interested in learning more about this I encourage you to read the articles I’ve listed below.

My husband and I started our keto journey on July 30th with two different goals in mind – mine was to lose weight and battle PCOS his was to simply to eat healthier as he is already on the low low end of BMI for his height and weight. So while its nice to make healthy choices with someone, our approaches are obviously very different when it comes to calories and protein.

As I type this, I have been eating a low carb diet for about 10 days. After the first five-ish days, I’ll admit I was foolishly discouraged. I didn’t feel like anything was life changing. The scale was fluctuating a lot and I wasn’t even completely sure I was in ketosis. I hadn’t suffered the infamous “keto flu” as many do during their first week of starting the diet and I was just overall skeptical. I ended up ordering some ketosis strips off of amazon despite hearing that I wouldn’t need them because it would be obvious that I was in ketosis. It wasn’t obvious. (I’ll link any products I mention below). I’ve only tested with them twice so far, and the first time was even with diluted urine. My strips were dark. So I’m definitely in ketosis. This was the first little push that I needed. It meant that I was doing it right, my macros (although I’m still tinkering with these) were okay, and I was getting somewhere. It was kind of a big deal.

Fast forward to today, I do a midweek weigh in (I really only want to be weighing once a week) and the scale shows a number I’m very pleased with. My starting weight was 205.2, the number on the scale today was 199. While this is only 6 lbs and it is likely just water weight, I have had the biggest problem breaking that 200 lb threshold since I gained all this weight. (Until PCOS started acting up, I weighed 150 for years and years).

Skipping ahead just a little more (tmi warning) to tonight – I’m weepy, angry and emotionally all over the place which is not the norm for me lately. I go to the bathroom and low and behold there is pink on the toilet paper. Aunt Flow has arrived. My last normal period was in November of 2017. I had spotting for two days in June (six months later!?) and then was back to nothing. So while it may sound weird to be excited about something like this, its a huge deal. It means keto is working, my body is healing, my blood sugar is stabilizing, and I might, just might, be able to actually start charting ovulation and restarting my TTC journey.

I know its early and progress will slow down, but I’m very excited about my results thus far and I know things can only improve from here. I’m wrapping up this post but will do a one month check in post in a few weeks with another weigh in and measurements so please visit again if you’d like to follow my journey.

[This post is not sponsored, I paid for these with my own money and opinions are my own. It does contain affiliate links]

If you’re like me, you put off going to the eye doctor. It’s expensive and takes a lot of time. Prescriptions in the US expire one year after issued by a doctor and US based websites usually require the doctor to verify your prescription before ordering your contacts or glasses. This means, if

you need new glasses but your prescription isn’t current you are out of luck. Luckily, there are websites based out of other countries that allow you to put in the values from your prescription and order lenses without going through a doctors approval. While I recommend always making sure your prescription is up to date – eye sight does change! – sometimes that isn’t always feasible. Zenni Optical is one of these websites. Not only is the prescription process easy, the frames are so cheap and include lenses.

If you’ve followed me on instagram for awhile, you’ll know that I usually use glasseslit.com to purchase my frames. They have a smaller selection but almost all of their frames are under $20. Zenni has a wider price range but has a lot more styles to choose from. I chose to give them a shot after seeing them recommended by some facebook friends. GlassesLit is great, but I searched their website for months waiting to snag a pair of basic black wayfarers that never came back in stock. Zenni had plenty of this style to try. I compared the measurements listed to my previous frame orders so I would know exactly how I would like their fit. Their website has so many infographics if you want to learn more about this.

The frames I chose were called “Square Glasses 2020121” in matte black. They were $15.95 and were one of the cheaper frames of this style. I opted to ad anti reflective coating for $4.95 as well as clip on sunglasses (?!?!) for $3.95. Honestly, I was over the moon about the sunglasses ad on option. Lack of sunglasses is my number one complaint for wearing glasses. I found a coupon code for 20% on retailmenot so total including shipping I paid $24.95.

The order took about two weeks to arrive from my order date which was to be expected. My order included a blue plastic glasses case as well as a microfiber cleaning cloth. The sunglasses add ons fit perfectly overtop of the frames and look just like sunglasses. They are easy to carry around in the little case. I’m so excited to have these for the beach and driving. The frames themselves fit great and were exactly as ordered. The prescription was accurate and I didn’t need to do any tweaking for them to fit correctly. These did not come with adhesive nose pads like all the glasseslit orders do but due to the shape of the nose area, these didn’t slide down so they weren’t needed. Overall, I’m very pleased with my purchase and will definitely be ordering from them again. When frames are so inexpensive, I like having one or two extra pairs to be able to change my look.

If you’re interested in ordering from them it would be bomb if you used my referral link so we both get $5 rewards! 🙂

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About Me

Jamie is a twenty-something originally from the midwest who currently lives in Georgia with her husband and their fur-family. She enjoys song writing, photography, and spending time at the beach. TSL is a life style and beauty blog that began in 2012.

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